This week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to release many of the roughly 100 Iraqis it has detained since the summer of 2017. That's after a federal judge gave the government a deadline of December 20th to let them go.

Judge Paul L. Maloney entered the courtroom when the clock on the wall read 9:08. He strode to the bench and settled into his chair. Behind him, mounted on the wood paneled wall, was a large round seal of the United States Federal Court Western District of Michigan. The hearing was off to a late start, but only by eight minutes. And, given that everyone was here to try to settle a dispute that dates back more than a century and a half, those eight minutes didn’t seem like much.

In front of Maloney in the wood-paneled courtroom at the federal building in Kalamazoo sat more than a dozen attorneys. Maloney called out each of them by name for the record.

Today on Stateside, a scientist on the state's PFAS Scientific Advisory Committee breaks down the group's official report on how Michigan should deal with PFAS contamination. Plus, after her sister suffered permanent brain damage on a go-kart ride in 2015, Corri Sandwick has been pushing the state to make amusement parks safer.

It was supposed to be a day of fun at AJ's Family Fun Center near Grand Rapids in 2015. Rachel Gibbs wore a scarf on the cool August day. Staff at AJ's made no mention of the potentially dangerous item as Gibbs and her youngest son loaded into a go-kart and zipped off. During the ride, Gibbs’ scarf got caught in one of the go-kart’s axles, snapping her windpipe.

Plans to change Michigan’s auto no-fault law will likely not make it to the governor’s desk this year. Lawmakers in the state House have been considering taking up the issue – and they still might. But with only days left in this session, the Senate is unlikely to follow suit.

Just off U.S. Highway 41 outside of Marquette, there’s an old man who lives alone in a small, one-bedroom house. Most days he's upstairs sitting at his desk or downstairs in his workshop. There he makes some of the best tobacco pipes in the world.

Not just blowing smoke

“My name is Lee Erck. I am a tobacco-smoking pipe maker. I live here in Negaunee Township,” he says on a cloudy Friday afternoon.

The A.V. Club has named the Believed podcast from Michigan Radio and NPR as the “Best Coverage of a News Story” podcast its annual “Podmass Superlatives” list, 2018. The entertainment webzine gives this nod to the investigative reporting podcast just as the Believed series wraps up with its Epilogue episode, “No Pretty Bows” released this week.